


Scrapyard Parkour

by kittydesade



Category: The Losers (2010)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-12-24
Updated: 2010-12-24
Packaged: 2017-10-14 02:00:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,082
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/144110
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kittydesade/pseuds/kittydesade





	Scrapyard Parkour

**Author's Note:**

  * For [kisahawklin](https://archiveofourown.org/users/kisahawklin/gifts).



"You ready for me to kick your ass?"

Jensen grinned at him. Cougar grinned back, a low to the ground grin that was only two shades of amusement off feral. He was ready, and he didn't think Jensen was going to kick his ass, but you never knew. They were about evenly matched.

Maybe not so much with the woman watching them. He glanced upwards where Aisha was standing, barely visible except as a dark silhouette against the sun, and back at Jensen. Whose attention was caught and his eyes went wide. "Is she…"

Cougar took off.

Running was something he did, something they all did, although he and Jensen took more pleasure in it than any of the rest of them. Clay bitched about bad knees a-nd claimed he was too old for that shit, Roque had just told them they were all crazy, Pooch was always tinkering on something and to be honest after taking those shots to the legs Cougar didn't blame him for sitting these out. Aisha was still an unknown quantity. He wasn't sure where she stood, although with a build like hers he was pretty sure she came down on the side of running at least for exercise if not for pleasure.

Today they were running an obstacle course of whatever was handy in the old scrapyard behind where they were bunking. Pretty much anything they could jump over, onto, run alongside of, over the top of, or up. They were making two circuits to try it out first, and afterwards they might go for something longer. Might.

Cougar stretched in front of Jensen at the halfway point where there was a pile of tires to be run around. Jensen did run around it, but Cougar picked his way up and over and leaped off the top of it and landed hard, still going. He wouldn't do that a second time, the impact of landing had jarred something in his ankle and while it was bearable, it wouldn't work for a long run. They'd have to figure out something else tomorrow. And that's what he got for showing off.

They kept running. It took six weeks for him to get to where he could run the PT test without wheezing or burning in his lungs, six months to get into shape enough that he could do it effortlessly. His natural body type went to lean and more bony than strong, it had taken a lot of time and a lot of rethinking his own image of himself to get to this point.

Of course, now that he was here, he couldn't imagine being any other way. He couldn't imagine being anywhere else in any way at all.

The second time he ran around the tires with Jensen. And almost collided into Jensen, but Jensen pulled ahead of him with a burst of speed, laughing. Cougar made a face and pulled up to him and they crossed the designated finish line, a furrow scraped in the dirt that was almost gone already, close enough that it would take a photo finish to tell who was the victor.

"… Are you limping?"

Cougar glanced at him over his shoulder, his 'who me?' face on. He wasn't limping. Noticeably, anyway, although any one of the team could tell there was something off in his stride. Nothing broken, but he'd put his foot on one of the tires and it had shifted under him in a way he hadn't expected and that put strain where his body couldn't take it. A hazard of the job. It was as good to learn how to run while wounded as it was to learn to run without injury.

"All right, macho man, come on, sit down. Or I'll get Clay to sit on you, and no one wants that." Jensen beckoned him over to the bench, and Cougar acquiesced. After glancing up at Aisha in answer to his commentary. Jensen looked up where he was looking, looked back at him. "I'm going to pretend you didn't say that. That's gross."

Again the innocent look. He hadn't said anything, though he didn't need to. He and Jensen were, well, tight like that.

Jensen kept him honest, kept him from sinking too deep into himself and kept up a steady stream of chatter so he didn't feel obligated to say anything. At least, that was one of the excuses he used for talking so much. Other times it was because he had to keep up both sides of the conversation, because Cougar's silence made him nervous too (that was with a girl who Cougar made uncomfortable when he was trying to make her feel better about saying so) or for any number of reasons. Really, Jensen just talked so much because he was just Jensen, it was one of those things. Cougar liked that about him.

And he kept up the stream of chatter as he bound up Cougar's ankle. "See, you get this from showing off, that's your problem. I know you gotta keep up this whole mysterious Latin lover image with the chicas, but this is me, man, you don't have to show off for me."

Cougar snorted, mouth twitching as he barely kept back a smile.

"And you keep this up, you're going to break an ankle, and then we'll be down a sniper and the boss'll have to send in Aisha. Have you seen what she uses? You can't snipe with an RPG."

God, the fuel tanks. That had been impressive, and well-timed. He looked up at her perch again but she was gone. Evidently the two of them patching each other up after their competition wasn't as interesting.

He sucked in a breath and questioned whether or not the wrapping needed to be that tight. Jensen punched him in the shoulder. "Don't look at me like that, you're the dumbass climbed the unsteady leaning tower of tires and got your ankle wrenched. It stays that way until corpsman Clay says otherwise."

Well, he couldn't argue much with that. What he could do was lean on Jensen all the way back to their motel, making pitiful little looks and grunts whenever anything so much as brushed his ankle. If Jensen was going to treat him like an invalid, he could play at being one. Besides, it made his friend smile. And bitch and moan. But that was Jensen for you, he wasn't unhappy until he fell silent. Perfect counterpoint. Perfect best friend.


End file.
